Qualla: Landing at Jacquinot Bay

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. The rumor did the fighting. For months before the landing, Australian-led indigenous troops of the Allied Intelligence Bureau had been spreading a deliberate lie through the villages of New Britain's south coast: a large Australian base, they told anyone who would listen, had already been established at Jacquinot Bay. There was no such base. The point was to discourage Japanese patrols from pushing west. When the actual landing came on 4 November 1944, fourteen hundred soldiers of the Australian 14th/32nd Battalion splashed ashore from American landing craft expecting the worst - and found an abandoned coast. Brigadier Raymond Sandover, watching his men secure the bay without a shot fired, drily expressed pleasure at having "nearly reached the war."

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Image: SpoolWhippets | CC0

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: A Changing of the Guard

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. By late 1944, the US Army's 40th Infantry Division - which had held New Britain's western positions at Cape Gloucester, Arawe, and around Talasea-Hoskins - was needed for the invasion of the Philippines. The Australian 5th Division under Major General Alan Ramsay drew the job of ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: The Bay and the Scouts

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. Jacquinot Bay lies on New Britain's south coast, east of Gasmata and west of Wide Bay, under the shadow of a densely forested mountain range that rises to 6,000 feet just inland. In the pre-war years, coconut plantations had been scattered around its shores - Cutarp on a northeas...

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Image: SpoolWhippets | CC0

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: The Coastwatcher War

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Long before the Australians came ashore in force, AIB patrols had been working this coast for months. In mid-April 1944, a platoon of indigenous New Guinean troops led by two Australian officers attacked the Japanese coastwatching station at Jacquinot Bay. Ten Imperial Japanese N...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: The Landing

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On 5 September 1944, a party of 105 Australian personnel - including soldiers of the 2/8th Commando Squadron and Royal Australian Air Force survey specialists - landed secretly at Jacquinot Bay to scout anchorages and beaches. M Special Unit, another Australian intelligence organ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: Building the Base

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. Bulldozers cleared the ground for tents. Stores came off the landing craft onto the beach, were carried by hand to sorting areas, then moved on pallets further inland. A pontoon jetty with rollers went up quickly. By 11-12 November, when the main body of the 5th Base Sub Area arr...

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Image: SpoolWhippets | CC0

Landing at Jacquinot Bay: Containment, Not Conquest

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Reg J. Edwards, Public domain. The airstrip finished in May 1945. Royal New Zealand Air Force squadrons - Corsair fighters and Ventura patrol aircraft - moved in, taking a slot originally intended for an Australian wing that had been diverted to Borneo. From Jacquinot Bay, Ramsay's 5th Division pushed east in ...

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Image: Reg J. Edwards | Public domain